By the time Alex and Shandra returned to the Helix, Alex was starting to get used to the constant flow of measurements her brain was now processing. It still felt extremely weird, but it was no longer disorienting her, at least not as much.

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“What’s with you?” H asked when the pair rejoined the others on the bridge, seeing the strange expression on Alex’s face.

“Giratina messed with my head or something,” the girl informed him. “I can just tell how big everything is now.”

“What do you mean?” H asked, not seeming to grasp the explanation.

Alex focused on the cyborg, and was once again bombarded with information. “Like, the distance between the floor and the tip of your hair is exactly 1.805 meters,” she said, picking one of the various measurements she was now aware of at random.

“Remarkable,” H responded.

“Wait a minute,” Arlon interjected. “How do we even know if she’s telling the truth?”

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Alex gave the mercenary an annoyed glance. “Why would I make this up?” she asked him.

“And you just happen to know that number off the top of your head, mate?” Arlon asked incredulously.

“Yes,” H answered curtly. The cyborg then turned back to Alex. “Quickly, we must test this!”

In rapid succession, H quizzed Alex on the dimensions of each of his augmentations, and every time the girl correctly stated their measurements. What is this even accomplishing? Alex wondered.

“Fascinating,” H mumbled to himself after running through all his questions. “Now, try this.” The cyborg pulled out a bouncy ball from his lab coat and held it up. Where’d he even get that from? “Tell me where this would bounce to.”

“Hmm, that’s an unfortunate limitation, but… I know you have never said yes to this, but if I could give you a brain implant like the others, this could be an incredibly useful tool.”

“No way! You’re not getting anywhere near my brain!”

“At least reconsider,” H insisted. “This could be useful to us.”

“H, drop it,” Shandra warned the cyborg.

“But we could finally have a use for her,” H responded. “Surely you can’t be-”

There was an audible thud as Shandra smacked the cyborg on the back of the head, cutting his words short. Alex couldn’t help but snicker. Serves you right, jerkface.

“What was that for?” H demanded.

“You know what that was for,” Shandra snapped back.

“What are you derps arguing about now?” Minerva asked as she walked onto the bridge. The pilot walked right between H and Shandra and plopped herself down in the pilot’s seat. “You have a missed call, by the way.” She hit a button on the console and brought it up onto the screen. “Huh, it’s the same callsign as before.”

“Before?” Shandra asked curiously.

“This guy called during the conference,” Minerva explained. “And again while we were on Nerva. Said he needed to talk to you about something important.”

“Did he say what his name was?” Shandra asked.

“Aarn something? Honda? Hondo? Something like that.”

“Aarn Hondo?” Arlon asked. “The smuggler?”

“That’s the one,” Minerva answered.

The name meant nothing to Alex, but, looking around the room, the others all seemed to recognize it. He must be important.

“What did he want?” Shandra asked.

“I don’t know,” Minerva replied. “You’ll have to listen to the message.”

Shandra walked up to the console and started the message. The face of a man Alex assumed to be Aarn Hondo appeared on the viewscreen. “Hello, my name is Aarn Hondo. I gave you your warp drive, if you’ll recall. I have been trying to reach you for a while now. Gilgamesh asked me to speak with you. There are important things we must discuss. Meet me at these coordinates.” The message ended, displaying a set of coordinates back in Alliance space.

“Agreed,” Shandra concurred. She placed her marked hand on the console and blipped the ship back into warp space.

Silence permeated the air within the briefing room where Arlon, along with his friends in the Helix crew, stood at the holotable across from Hondo and the Alliance paramilitary commander who had introduced himself as Rodriguez. Upon arriving at the coordinates the smuggler captain had provided, the Helix had docked with the station owned by OmniGuard Industries located there. Hondo and Rodriguez had wasted no time in getting them up to speed on the mission they had been working alongside Gilgamesh to complete, including the discovery of the Eye of Aether. Unfortunately, the mission hadn’t gone as planned, and Gilgamesh had perished during the operation...

“That’s unfortunate,” Arlon said, finally breaking the silence. He knew the monk had recruited Hondo to help locate some sort of artifact— the smuggler had told him that much the last time they spoke— and he even knew it was something important because Hondo had mentioned Mr. Silver was involved, but it hadn’t occurred to him that it would be this important. “His knowledge on these sorts of things would be helpful right about now…”

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“He seemed to believe that your friends here knew something about all this as well,” Hondo replied, motioning toward the Helix crew. “Maybe even more than him. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know half of what went on in that man’s head, but… he seemed to regard you all as our last hope.”

“That’s certainly a compliment,” Shandra said.

“Regardless, did he at least die for something?” H asked.

Rodriguez stepped up to the holotable. “He died so that we could escape,” he answered. “So that we could tell you.”

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“Well, great job,” H replied sarcastically. “You didn’t even acquire the thing you went there to get.”

“No,” Rodriguez responded. “But we know where it is at least.”

“You know where it was,” H corrected him, completely unimpressed.

The commander seemed confused. “What do you mean?”

“How do you know it’s still there now?” Dmitri clarified. By the look on Rodriguez’s face, it was quite obvious to Arlon that he had not even considered that possibility.

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“So, in essence, you discovered a powerful artifact that could potentially solve the issue of the entire Galaxy being destroyed,” H began to berate the commander. “And then you decided to sacrifice one of the smartest men in the Galaxy, who knew how to use that resource, then said ‘welp, that sucks’ and left.”

“We didn’t really have any other options,” Rodriguez told cyborg.

“Well, you’re useless,” H responded.

Arlon saw the cyborg raise his hands, charging up electricity for an attack, and quickly jumped into action. The mercenary stepped in front of H, blocking his shot on Hondo and Rodriguez, then forcibly shoved the cyborg’s arms down. “What the hell are you doing?!” Arlon demanded.

“They are of no use to us, therefore we do not need them.”

“But we don’t need them dead!” Shandra shouted. “H, these are our friends!”

“How?” H turned to look at her, eyes still fierce with anger.

“Well, for starters,” Arlon said. “They’re the only ones who know where that bloody thing-”

“Used to be,” H cut him off, his rage growing.

“And what does attacking them solve?” Arlon spat back, grabbing H violently by his lab coat. “Nothing! That only serves to make us more enemies, something we can’t afford right now! Just because the artifact may have been moved, doesn’t mean they don’t have information that could lead us to it.”

“Fine,” H responded, his voice still bitter. “It’s better than no lead at all.”

Seeing the cyborg cut the charge flowing to his weapons, Arlon released his grip. He turned back to see Rodriguez with his rifle firmly pointed right between H’s eyes.

“Is there something you should tell us?” Shandra asked the commander.

Rodriguez hesitated for a moment, then lowered his weapon. “Sorry,” he said. “We’ve all just been on edge. It’s been rough the past few weeks.”

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“I’m sure accomplishing as much as you have has made it incredibly rough,” H grumbled, his sarcasm quite apparent.

“Hey,” Rodriguez protested. It was clear to Arlon that the commander took offense to the cyborg’s words. “We’ve accomplished a lot, actually,” he continued. “We have intel feeds inside, so don’t tell me we’ve been doing nothing.”

“Inside what?” Alex asked.

“Well, we’ve been on the run from Mr. Silver for the past few weeks,” Hondo explained. “We’ve had numerous encounters.”

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“So for all we know, his men could be on their way as we speak?” Arlon asked. The Red Suns leader had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“Yes,” the smuggler answered. “But we’ve done what we could to turn their hunt to our advantage.”

“Good on you, mate,” Arlon said. “What have you managed to accomplish so far? What do we have to work with here?”

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Before Hondo got the chance to answer, the holotable began flashing. He hit a button, and the display shifted to show a very advanced looking cruiser dropping out of warp space near the station. “Ah, it looks like our friends have arrived,” the smuggler said wryly. “Right on schedule.”

“I see they sent the big one again,” Rodriguez commented, taking a glance out the viewport. “Excellent.”

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“I take it you already have some kind of plan?” Arlon asked, a smirk appearing on his face.

“We’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a week,” the commander explained. “That’s the main ship, the one that’s coordinating the search.”

“So, why not blow it up?” Alex asked.

“We have reason to believe there is vital information on board,” Rodriguez informed the girl. “And it is very likely that our missing operative is being held there as well. Our plan was to send in a small infiltration team, but-”

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Suddenly, the ship hailed the station. Noticing the slightly confused expressions on both Hondo and Rodriguez’s faces, Arlon hit a button on the holotable, accepting the call. The holotable immediately projected out a viewscreen displaying Shandra’s image. “Hey guys,” she said. “I got tired of waiting.”

Both Rodriguez and Hondo looked at where Shandra had been standing moments ago, then back to the screen, their expressions looking even more confused. Arlon couldn’t help but chuckle.

“That’s one way of... rapid tactical entry,” the commander muttered to himself.

“Shandra?” Alex called out in surprise. “What are you doing?!” The girl seemed quite concerned.

“A solid plan, luv, but next time, let us know before you make an impulsive decision like that,” Arlon told her.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the blue-haired girl replied. “But right now, let’s worry about finding a way to get you guys over here.”

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“I guess you guys are the infiltration team, then,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll draw their fire while you sneak aboard.”

“I can open the hangar from here,” Shandra said. “And maybe you can fly across in an escape pod or something.”

“We have just the thing,” Hondo spoke up.

“It’s a little cramped for four people, but you’ll manage.” Hondo stood in front of an escape pod sitting in the station’s hangar. Alex could only guess it was what the smuggler and Rodriguez had used to escape their previous mission, the one Gilgamesh hadn’t come back from.

“I’ve flown under worse conditions,” Arlon said as he climbed in.

Alex simply shrugged, then followed the mercenary. Once the rest of the Helix crew joined them, Rodriguez closed the hatch. Alex heard a few raps against the side of the pod before it was propelled forward through the hangar shield into the vacuum of space.

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“We should have left a bomb behind to kill those idiots,” H said as the escape pod drifted toward its target.

“What is wrong with you?” Alex asked, even though she knew that there were far too many things wrong with the cyborg to list in the short amount of time it would take to reach the ship.

“Just let it go, mate,” Arlon said. “We can’t just go around killing our allies, especially when we can still get some use out of them.”

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“But that is exactly my point,” H countered. “They’re not going to be useful, so we should just kill them.”

“You obviously have much to learn about how this galaxy works,” Arlon responded.

“Alright, guys, you should be all clear.” Alex was relieved to hear Shandra’s voice sound over the comms, preventing the argument from continuing. She wasn’t sure how much more of H’s crap she could take. The girl gazed out the viewport to see the hangar door on Mr. Silver’s ship slide open. “I’ve caused a distraction on the opposite end of the ship, so the hangar should be empty.”

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Laser fire flew around the escape pod as it neared the cruiser. The ship was bombarding the station with lasers and missiles in an attempt to disable its weapons. Thanks to Arlon’s adept flying, the pod narrowly avoided a missile just before it reached the hangar.

“We’ve landed,” Arlon announced over the comms as the pod ground to a halt.

“Closing the door now,” Shandra responded.

Once the hangar door sealed, the crew exited the escape pod. Glad to be out of the cramped quarters, Alex stretched out, then gazed around at her surroundings. The area appeared to be devoid of any enemy presence. I guess Shandra’s distraction worked, she thought.

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“Keep your guard up,” Arlon instructed the Helix crew as he stepped out of the escape pod. “Get your Pokemon and weapons ready. Shandra, send us a map of the ship if you can find one, then keep looking for what we came here to find. We’ll head for the brig first and see if we can’t find that missing operative.”

“Got it,” Shandra responded. “The system architecture is very secure, but I patched a map together for you using the security feeds. I’m uploading it to you now. I’ve marked the brig for you.”

“Thanks, luv,” Arlon said. He then turned to the crew. “Alright, let’s get moving.”

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Following Arlon’s lead, the Helix crew moved through a series of corridors until they come to an intersection of several hallways. “Hold on, I’m seeing someone with my x-ray vision,” H warned.

“Where?” Dmitri asked.

“Third hallway on the right,” the cyborg answered.

“There’s no camera for that hall,” Shandra informed them over the comms.

“No need,” H told her. “We’ll just take him down. #1, go!” The cyborg fired a massive blast of electricity at his Rhyhorn, who then proceeded to charge forward, sparks flying off of him as he approached the intersection.

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A cybernetic man slowly walked around the corner, and the charging Rhyhorn plowed right into him. In one fluid motion, the man slid over the top of the Pokemon, avoiding the brunt of the attack, then landed on his feet, seeming to absorb the electricity in the process. He brushed himself off, then gazed down the corridor at the crew.

What? Alex thought in confusion, not at the man’s actions, but his appearance. The resemblance was unmistakable. The sharp blue eyes and spiky blond hair. It was H… but not.

Then he spoke with an all too familiar voice, although the tone was quite different. “Well, this is awkward.”

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Alex looked back at H, then back to the man, then back to H once more, her confusion growing. It seemed that H was confused as well. Alex saw his jaw drop, then a single sound escaped his mouth. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“Is that…?” Alex heard Shandra ask over the commlink. “But… what?”

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Arlon addressed the man.

The man’s lips formed into a slight smirk at the question. “I am Experiment #1749XQ221-I, but you may simply call me ‘I.’”

“So, you must be another of Armstrong’s clones,” Arlon said.

“And you must be that traitor Mr. Silver’s been toying with.” I pulled out a Pokeball, and looked at it for a brief moment before returning his focus to the crew.

“What the bloody hell are you doing here?” Arlon asked.

“I think we both know the answer to that.”

“So you work for that bastard then?”

“I suppose you could say that. This is my ship. So, I think the real question here is, why are you here? This isn’t your ship. I don’t remember inviting you.” He tossed the Pokeball up and down as he spoke. “So, why are you here?”

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“Well, mate,” Arlon said, a slight smirk forming on his face. “That’s for you to find out.”

“Ah, yes. Of course. I’d expect nothing less from you.”

As the two continued to exchange words, thoughts raced through Alex’s mind. There’s a second H? And he’s evil? We need to stop him. The girl decided that she had heard enough. Someone needed to do something. “No more talking!” she finally shouted. “Lumiera! Inferno!” Alex’s Chandelure floated forward and unleashed a massive surge of flames at the cyborg, completely engulfing him.

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As the flames roared around him, I simply raised a hand, a glow emanating out from the palm. The flames began to sparkle strangely, then they glitched out of existence. What the hell?

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“Oh, this?” I asked. Alex was taken aback for a second. It was like he had read her thoughts. But then I turned to look directly at the nearest security camera. He was addressing Shandra; he knew she was there. That thought was terrifying to Alex. “You like it?” I continued. “I picked it up from some residue in Geneva. I believe... you had something to do with that, actually,” he added tauntingly.

I tossed his Pokeball out, releasing a heavily augmented Rhyperior. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to,” he said as he caught the ball. With that, he turned and began walking down the hallway. “Omega, finish them.” The blast doors slid shut behind him, leaving his Pokemon to deal with Arlon and the Helix crew.

I’s Rhyperior took a step toward H’s Rhyhorn, firing up its drills as it approached. Gaining momentum, the large Pokemon charged through its pre-evolved form. Luckily, the durable rock Pokemon managed to stand up to the powerful hit. Alex watched H quickly leap to action, pulling out his Pokeball cannon. The cyborg loaded up a pester ball and fired it at Omega, burning the Rhyperior right through its rocky hide and armor plating.

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As the Rhyperior advanced, Alex locked eyes with it, giving the Pokemon a sad look with a baby-doll expression, causing it to hesitate momentarily. Arlon quickly seized the opportunity the girl provided, and unloaded on the Rhyperior with his pistols.

“Wilhelm, Shadow Ball!” Dmitri commanded his Haunter while Arlon had it suppressed. The ghostly Pokemon built up a ball of shadowy energy and lobbed it at Omega, dealing another hit against it. Dmitri then attempted to follow up with an attack of his own, but it failed to connect.

“Ironhide, use Iron Tail!” Arlon shouted to his Aggron as he continued his barrage of laser fire. The armored Pokemon charged forward, and swiped at I’s Rhyperior with his powerful tail, dealing a decisive blow. The Pokemon stumbled for a second before regaining its footing.

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“Guys, I’m trying to get to you,” Shandra’s voice sounded over the commlink. “It’s gonna take me a while to get through the mainframe. If you need me, you’re just going to have to wait a little while longer. I’m going as fast as I can.”

“We can hold our own here,” Arlon responded “Keep looking for that data!”

“Alright. Good luck.”

From inside the ship’s network, Shandra monitored her friends’ battle against I’s Rhyperior with bated breath through the security feed while she continued her hunt for whatever data on the Eye of Aether was contained on the ship. Unfortunately, from her current location in the ship’s systems, Shandra could only access the security cameras and mechanical functions. She considered finding a way to jump to whatever servers the data might be stored on, but she didn’t even know where to look for them as Hondo and Rodriguez hadn’t exactly specified what she was looking for. Not to mention the fact that she didn’t want to lose access to the security cameras in case her friends needed help.

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Turning her attention away from the data stream and back to the security feed, Shandra assessed how the others were doing. Alex had released Leviathan, whose storm clouds were now somewhat obscuring Shandra’s view, but she was still able to see what was going on. She watched as I’s Rhyperior charged right into the middle of everyone and stomped down hard. The feed filled with static for a moment as the whole ship rumbled from the impact.

When the static cleared, Shandra got a pretty good view of the corridor, as the shockwave had temporarily dispersed the vapour in the air. Several of the Pokemon looked pretty beat up, including Leviathan, but they all still seemed to be doing a good job at keeping the Rhyperior at bay. Feeling good about her friends’ chances, Shandra shifted her focus back to the data stream.

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Damn it, there’s nothing here, Shandra thought as she scanned through the information flowing past her. Of course, it was something, just not anything useful. It was all just signals keeping the ship’s systems running.

Shandra looked back to the security feed to see Arlon’s Aggron pinning the Rhyperior to the wall. Then, something unexpected happened. I’s Pokemon shoved the Aggron back, then vanished from sight. “It’s got some kind of cloaking device!” she heard H shout. They all began looking around for the Rhyperior, hoping to anticipate where it might reappear.

They didn’t need to wait long, as a moment later, the Rhyperior reappeared in the center of the action and unleashed another powerful quake, obscuring Shandra’s view with static once more. The feed cleared up just in time for her to see Arlon slam into a wall and Leviathan collapse to the floor.

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C’mon, you can do it guys, Shandra thought as she watched Alex recall her fainted Pokemon and send out her Lucario. This was getting a bit rough for her liking, but she had faith in her friends. They continued their barrage of attacks, but the Rhyperior only seemed to be getting pissed off.

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After Alex’s Lucario landed a powerful Focus Blast on the Rhyperior, the enraged Pokemon set its sights on the Sinai girl. The rocket thrusters on its back flared to life, and it flew through the air directly at her, completely surrounded in flames. No! Thoughts raced through Shandra’s mind. She had to get there; she had to save Alex.

“Anubis!” Alex’s scream sounded over the feed. Shandra watched as the girl’s Lucario stepped in front of her, paws held out to counter the charging Rhyperior. Anubis fought through the searing flames and redirected the charging Pokemon’s momentum, hurling it over Alex’s head into the hallway behind her. The Lucario then collapsed into Alex’s arms.

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Shandra breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God, she thought. She was glad Alex was safe, but was saddened that her Pokemon had been severely hurt.

After a brief respite to catch their bearings, during which Shandra began looking for a way to jump to another part of the ship’s network, the team continued onward to the brig. Seeing no dangers along the remainder of their route, Shandra began scanning through the security feeds to locate I, having determined that she couldn’t really access any other systems at the moment. Where did he go? she asked herself, not finding him anywhere. She didn’t have to wait long for an answer to her question; from her position in the network, Shandra was suddenly notified of an escape pod launch. “I seems to have abandoned ship,” she relayed to the others. Privately, she cursed herself for not keeping an eye on the cyborg.

“Damn,” Arlon responded. “I’m sure we’ll be hearing from that bastard again soon, but never mind that now. We’ve arrived at the brig.”

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Shandra brought up a security feed of the brig to see her friends stepping through the door. With Arlon in front, they approached a cell across the room. Not being able to see the interior of the cell, Shandra changed her view to a different camera. From this new angle, Shandra saw a young woman imprisoned behind an energy shield. She was sitting on the floor, seeming extremely bored. She looked up at Arlon, Alex, Dmitri, and H as they approached, but said nothing.

I wonder if she’s Hondo’s missing operative, Shandra thought as she observed the scene. One way to find out. She captured the image on the security feed and transmitted it to the smuggler back on the station. “Hondo, is this who you’re looking for?” Shandra asked over the channel with the station she had kept open.

“Ha, she made it!” the smuggler responded. “She’s alive after all.”

I guess that’s a yes. “That’s who we’re looking for,” Shandra relayed to her friends.

“Got it,” Arlon acknowledged.

Over the security feed, Shandra watched H step forward. It was hard to tell from the particular camera angle, but for a brief moment Shandra thought she saw a confused look appear on the young woman’s face. “Do you happen to know two fools by the name of Aarn Hondo and Samuel Rodriguez?” the cyborg asked.

“Yes,” the young woman responded.

“They apparently need you,” H continued. “Hopefully it will help them improve their current condition. Come on, we’re getting you out of here. Don’t waste anybody’s time by staying.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t, but we are opening the door, and we aren’t pointing guns at you.”

“He’s got a point, luv,” Arlon agreed, deactivating the energy shield sealing the cell as he spoke. “And if you’re worried about him looking like that other fellow running around, there’s no need for that. Now let’s get moving here.”

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As the mercenary spoke, Shandra’s view went fuzzy for a moment as the ship was struck with a salvo from the station’s heavy cannons.

“Well, clearly he’s not the same individual,” the girl commented as she stepped out of the cell, noting H’s distinct augmentations.

“Superior being,” H corrected her.

Shandra sighed.

The girl gave the cyborg another curious glance before continuing on. “Judging from the sounds of battle outside, and your mention of my former teammates, I can assume that you are... probably friends.”

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“You’re welcome to stay in this cell,” H told her. “But you’re probably in more trouble there than following the random people who opened it.”

“True enough,” she agreed. “Now, I just need my things.” With that, the young woman walked over to a nearby security box, then hacked its lock open with ease. “I’m Meta, by the way,” she said as she pulled a Pokedex out of the box. She fiddled around with it for a few seconds, then shoved it in her pocket. “Who are you?”

“I see,” Meta said, once more eyeing H curiously. She then turned her attention back to the box. She pulled out some Pokeballs, which she clipped to her belt, then lifted a small bag out and slung it over her shoulder. “So, how about we get out of here?”

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“We still need to get that information we came here for,” Alex told the young woman.

“Can you be a bit more specific?” Meta asked as she began fiddling with her Pokedex again. “If you want my help, I need specifics. What kind of information are we talking here?”

With a sense of urgency, the infiltration team followed Meta through several long, empty corridors toward the communications center. Where the hell is everybody? Alex wondered as they pressed on, noticing the distinct lack of crew. For a ship of this size, it was surprisingly empty. Something about that gave Alex the creeps. Or maybe it was just because of I. One H is bad enough… Hopefully evil H can’t control normal H somehow. Alex shuddered, but she remained focused. There were more important things to worry about at the moment.

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“This is it,” Meta announced, stopping outside a door labeled Communications. She opened the door and led the others inside. Alex watched as Meta effortlessly hacked in with her Pokedex and began to do her thing. “So, you didn’t say exactly what locations you- ah, fuck it, I’ll just grab everything.”

“Damn, she’s good,” Shandra’s voice sounded over the comms a few moments later.

“Alright, that should do it,” Meta said, slipping her Pokedex back into her pocket.

“Done already?’ Arlon asked. “That’s impressive.”

“I’m good at what I do,” Meta said matter-of-factly. “Now let’s get out of here. I assume you have a way off this ship.”

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“Who do you take us for, luv?” Arlon asked. “Of course we do. In the hangar. Let’s move.”

As the team made their way back to the hangar, Shandra’s voice sounded over the comms. “Guys, Hondo says he thinks the station’s been sabotaged, so they’re pulling out. He says he’ll contact us later. ”

“Got it,” Arlon responded. “Let’s get back to the Helix.”

“Alright, I’ll hail Minerva and let her know. Alex, I’m jumping into your Pokedex now. That way you can all fit in the escape pod.”

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A few moments later, the team arrived back in the hangar.“Well this’ll be fun,” Arlon commented as they approached the escape pod. He then climbed in and began getting ready for takeoff.

“Nonsense!” H declared. He magnetized himself to the ceiling of the pod, freeing up space for the others.

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Alex followed the cyborg aboard, then looked around for a suitable space to squish herself into. Being quite flexible, the girl was able to contort herself to fit in a tight corner. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but she didn’t really have a choice. At least we won’t be in here long.

“See, there is plenty of room!” H declared from his spot on the ceiling. Meta sighed, then climbed aboard with Dmitri just behind. The two crammed themselves into the remaining space while Arlon fired up the engines.

From her contorted position, Alex was able to see the hangar doors slide open through the viewport. Laser fire still flew as the ship bombarded the now-defenseless station, but Arlon was able to navigate the small pod out of harm’s way.

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“Someone’s leg is in my face,” Meta commented as the pod continued to drift away from the battle, her voice somewhat muffled. Alex could feel her rubbing up against the side of her shin.

Author’s Notes: It’s been a long time since I’ve finished anything, so it’s nice to finally get this posted! I actually started work on it just after the last Blueshift chapter, writing that opening scene, but then work on it stagnated. The opening bit is pretty straightforward, just resolving the end of the previous chapter, but it isn’t that different from the original aside from Arlon being there instead of Morgan and a few minor detail changes. Where I got stuck was in the next scene since I really wasn’t sure how to handle the interaction without Morgan being there. Having her yell at Hondo and Rodriguez was a great way to open the scene in the original, but that wasn’t an option here. Eventually, I figured something out and it all came together. Overall, the scene wasn’t that different aside from a few key detail changes. The same can be said for basically the entirety of the chapter. The contents are still very important to the flow of the story as a whole so they needed to be here. Given that it wasn’t going to deviate much, I took the opportunity to play around with different character perspectives and worked on writing things a bit more clearly to make it all float better. The scene where I (the character, not me) showed up in particular flowed a lot better not being artificially split between Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of Volume 3 due to the unfortunate timing of needing to end a session early. It was also fun to toy around with different battle descriptions by showing half the fight from Shandra’s perspective via security feed. Additionally, after I had finished the bulk of the writing I realized that I needed to account for everything being pushed back a week later by Morgan’s death. Since before now Hondo and Rodriguez’s story had been independent of Shandra’s all the changes caused by the gender change hadn’t affected it. That meant that I’s ship still would have attacked the station already. The easy fix there was to just leave a few subtle hints that it was actually a different station and they’d just been on the run for an extra week. From here, though, the deviation is gonna start happening with basically every chapter.

That does it for this chapter. As always the Spacemon gang and I will be monitoring the comments to foster discussion and answer any questions. Feel free to give feedback and critiques of the writing so I can improve it for the future, or just leave a comment with what you think about what went down in this chapter or what you think might happen next! You can also revisit past chapters, check out the Spacemon Appendix which is a repository of information on all the lore and characters of Spacemon, or like our Facebook page to stay updated on all things Spacemon! Click here for the next exciting installment of Spacemon: Blueshift!